Secret of Two
by C.D.Meiss
Summary: Axel's lost his Secret and will go to extreme measures to find it again. Axel/OC. Oneshot. Rated for lame reasons and beacause I'm paranoid.


Secret of Two

Like all men, mortal or otherwise, Number Eight had a Secret.

It wasn't something deep and dark and horrible, such as an awful past sin or anything like that; just something he didn't want any of the other members to know about.

Except Demyx.

Demyx knew Axel's secret, but that was okay. Axel knew he knew, and even sought out the water-oriented Nobody for his help, sometimes.

Axel would creep into Demyx's room every once in a while—or maybe for the third night in a row—and poke his subordinate in the shoulder.

"Demyx. Hey, Demyx, wake up. Can you—"

Most of the time, he replied before the sentence was even completed.

"Sure, Axel. Get the box and meet me outside, okay?"

As the door shut and he clutched the tiny box of pills, Axel would shake his head and wonder how his friend could be so chipper and happy at 3 in the morning.

Demyx would come out—dressed, hopefully—and take two of the Tic-Tac size pills from the small box: One for Axel, the other for himself.

Axel hated the feeling the pill produced, and it especially centered on his legs. It was like they were being melted together by a soldering gun, and when he tried to walk he fell over.

After a few trips, he and Demyx were smart enough to swallow their "Tic-Tacs" _after _they'd leaped through the portal, not before.

Demyx would always laugh as Axel tried to get used to the sensation of propelling himself through the deep, warm water with the help of his new kelp green fin.

Cracked the kid up every time, no matter how many times in a row he went with Axel.

This was why Number Eight refused to tell the others about his excursions into Atlantica. He was embarrassed that he had to become a skinny shirtless fish-boy to visit what had rapidly become his least favourite world.

For a while, when he still needed help with the swimming, Axel lied to Demyx and told him that he was just bored and wanted to learn something new.

The gullible young man didn't seem to care because he loved the watery world as well. But after a few weeks of their nighttime trips to sea, Axel asked Demyx along less and less. He'd learned what he needed to from the dirty blonde and had even acquired his own box of blue-green pills.

Now began the real trips, the reason for the weeks and hours of enduring Demyx's sloppy teaching skills.

Axel began searching.

He didn't exactly know what he was looking for—a scrap of fluttering opaque material maybe, or a pair of shattered seaglass spectacles—but he looked hard.

See, Axel's Secret was that he loved someone. And that someone had been sent to die in this world. He refused to believe that she was dead, but finding absolutely no trace of her neither proved nor disproved his theory.

Every mermaid in the glowing city that possessed a shimmering indigo tail was stopped by his hand; all brunettes her age were asked silly questions so he could see their faces.

Soon he went in every night, without Demyx.

He became known as the Wandering Flame to all because of his red mane of hair and the heat of the water around him. Most of the young girls simply called him Blue Fire, an homage to his ever-present sadness.

Axel continued to search and search until one night he decided he couldn't handle the grief of not knowing anymore.

Carefully, he retraced a current he had followed only once, two or three years before. Very soon the weeds and kelp became dark, scraggly, and thin.

The cave entrance gaped open like a huge black mouth as Axel silently swam inside. He reassured himself of the whereabouts of a few sharp stone knives and flicked his way into the glow of enchanted pearls.

He solemnly retrieved on of the tools from its perch on a coral shelf and was almost about to let it strike his chest when he heard a noise.

Whipping around as fast as his fin would allow, the knife swayed in slow motion to the sea floor as he released it.

She was there, hovering in the doorway across the room, a mermaid about his age. Her indigo tail swished from side to side, eyes wide as he took in her appearance.

His Secret had changed since he'd last seen her; she was now clad in the dark green of woven seaweed, but a thin piece of opaque white adorned her wrist. The glasses had vanished and in their place thin lines of silver ink tattooed her eyes. The short curls of chocolate brown that once brushed her shoulders now floated around her waist.

Recognition flashed in her eyes and she swam at him with lightning speed. The Wandering Flame embraced the Secret that he had searched so hard for, and she kissed him all over as hard and meaningfully as she found possible.

"Your glasses," He gasped, inhaling lungfuls of air/water. "Where— What happened? How did she—?"

She cut him off with a happy kiss. "In exchange for my servitude, she restored my eyesight. But, during the process I…I killed her. The enchantment wasn't fully complete, but just enough. That's how I came by these." She closed her eyes as he traced the silver metal lines with his thumb.

Axel stared at her for a moment before burying his face in his hair. "I knew it," he murmured. "I knew you didn't die."

She smiled into his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around him once more. "You didn't forget me."

Axel laughed low in his chest, the sound reverberating through the cavern and causing her to giggle as well.

"Of course not. And I never, ever quit loving you."

She looked up at him then, her silver marks glinting in the pearl-light, outlining the pure emotion as he whispered softly, "You've always been my Secret."

* * *

**A/N: **This was written for my IRL friend, Jojay (shameless plug). Thankfully she liked it! Please read, review, and enjoy.

_C.D.M._


End file.
